Cathay Pacific on Monday (Oct 17) released its traffic figures for September 2022, which continued to reflect the positive impact of further adjustments to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government’s travel restrictions and quarantine requirements. This notably included the removal of the mandatory hotel quarantine arrangement for locally based aircrew from 10 September and for travellers arriving in Hong Kong from 26 September.
Cathay Pacific carried a total of 265,845 passengers last month, an increase of 101.7% compared to September 2021, but an 89% decrease compared to the pre-pandemic level in September 2019. The month’s revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) increased 102.2% year-on-year but were down 84.1% versus September 2019. Passenger load factor increased by 26.7 percentage points to 72.5%, while capacity, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), increased by 27.8% year-on-year, but decreased by 83.8% compared with September 2019 levels. In the first nine months of 2022, the number of passengers carried increased by 124.7% against a 6.7% increase in capacity and a 130.6% increase in RPKs, as compared to the same period for 2021.
The airline carried 104,055 tonnes of cargo last month, a decrease of 20.6% compared to September 2021, and a 39.7% decrease compared with the same period in 2019. The month’s cargo revenue tonne kilometres (RFTKs) decreased 28.3% year-on-year and were down 38.6% compared to September 2019. The cargo load factor decreased by 13.3 percentage points to 66.4%, while capacity, measured in available cargo tonne kilometres (AFTKs), was down by 14% year-on-year, and was down by 39.4% versus September 2019. In the first nine months of 2022, the tonnage decreased by 9.8% against a 23.7% decrease in capacity and a 31.8% decrease in RFTKs, as compared to the same period for 2021.
Travel
Chief Customer and Commercial Officer Ronald Lam said: “Cathay Pacific’s travel business continued to show improvement in September, helped by student traffic from both Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland. Overall passenger numbers further increased month-on-month to over 8,800 per day, while the load factor was 72.5%. Passenger flight capacity stood at about 16% of pre-pandemic levels.
“Demand for student travel to the US tapered down from the second week of September, but this was balanced by growing demand among UK-bound student traffic. As such, we increased the number of flights operated between Hong Kong and the UK from 111 sectors in August to 134 in September, with the load factor on flights to London reaching 96%. We also added capacity on flights to Japan and Southeast Asia.
“Aside from student traffic, inbound traffic to Hong Kong also improved, largely driven by demand from the US and Canada. The removal of hotel quarantine arrangements for passengers arriving in Hong Kong was a very welcome development that has helped boost sentiment for travel. In the last week of September, we saw a considerable increase in demand for flights to Singapore, Bangkok and Seoul.
Cargo
“On the cargo side, tonnage in September decreased about 21% compared to last year’s exceptionally high level. We had reduced cargo flight capacity in expectation of this and operated fewer cargo-only passenger services on long-haul routes. However, the fall in demand compared with last year was greater than predicted, largely due to weaker consumer demand and reduced manufacturing activities in the Chinese Mainland. This prolonged the dip we typically see after the Mid-Autumn Festival and also meant the pre-National Day Holiday uptick was relatively mild. Overall last month, cargo flight capacity was approximately 61% of pre-pandemic levels.
